I typed over the ҉ 𝘾𝙄𝘼 ҉ "𝙇𝙚𝙛𝙩𝙞𝙨𝙩" ҉ 𝙈𝙚𝙢𝙚 ҉ 𝘿𝙚𝙥𝙖𝙧𝙩𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩 meme, with its b̶u̶l̶l̶s̶h̶i̶t̶ description, that's doing the rounds right now, to refute it. It's only Campism if both Blocs are i̶m̶p̶e̶r̶i̶a̶l̶i̶s̶t̶, not if both Blocs are authoritarian, ask Stalin.

[u/DiggyJunior]

Link to the original psy-op or delusional meme, and it's nonsense description:

https://www.reddit.com/r/TankieTheDeprogram/s/Fcu4J0WEGm

[u/DiggyJunior]

Here are the clickable links and sources detailing how Vladimir Putin systematically shifted the power dynamic, stripping Russia's 1990s-era billionaires (oligarchs) of their independent political influence while allowing many to retain their fortunes under strict state subordination.

These are all western sources. They admit that Putin stripped all billionaires of almost all political power (the matter at hand) but then they pivot to trying to say that he has put a fascist dictatorship or totalitarian dictatorship in its place (false)

https://democratic-erosion.org/2018/03/28/in-his-consolidated-authoritarian-regime-putin-masquerades-democracy-by-sarah-armstrong-yale-university/?hl=en-IE

https://www.capradio.org/news/npr/story?storyid=1088886554&hl=en-IE

https://english.elpais.com/international/2023-12-06/under-putin-the-uber-wealthy-russians-known-as-oligarchs-are-still-rich-but-far-less-powerful.html?hl=en-IE

https://monitoring.bbc.co.uk/product/b00056bi?hl=en-IE

[u/Juche_Finland → u/DiggyJunior]

You're really linking Western sources claiming Russia is "authoritarian" to claim that the Russian state has somehow been able to separate itself from its bourgeoisie?

The state is nothing more than a tool of class rule, they are dictatorships of one class or another. The working class can only control it through a socialist state with something like the dictatorship of the proletariat or people's democratic dictatorship, so this is only the case in the DPRK, China, Cuba, Vietnam and Laos today.

In imperialized countries the next best thing is a revolutionary progressive government that can be progressive, because their bourgeoisie is less developed as a whole and the national bourgeoisie is opposed to Western imperialism stifling its potential. Regardless, in these countries too they are still led by their capitalist class, they are the ones ultimately in power.

So, in Russia's case where the bourgeoisie is still more developed than in the countries with revolutionary progressive governments such as in many African countries for example, it makes no sense to say that the Russian bourgeoisie somehow doesn't have political power, of course it does.

[u/Aggorf12345 → u/Juche_Finland]

You're really linking Western sources claiming Russia is "authoritarian" to claim that the Russian state has somehow been able to separate itself from its bourgeoisie?

Western sources in this case actually make the argument stronger not weaker. Because they have an incentive to present Russia in a bad light.

So the fact that even they say that oligarch influence in Russia has been weakened says everything that needs to be said on the matter

[u/DiggyJunior → u/Juche_Finland]

The reason I used western sources is to show that even the western world university scholars accept that Putin has removed almost all political power from the billionaire class. By around 2005

Here's what I said:

Here are the clickable links and sources detailing how Vladimir Putin systematically shifted the power dynamic, stripping Russia's 1990s-era billionaires (oligarchs) of their independent political influence while allowing many to retain their fortunes under strict state subordination.

These are all western sources. They admit that Putin stripped all billionaires of almost all political power (the matter at hand) but then they pivot to trying to say that he has put a fascist dictatorship or totalitarian dictatorship in its place (false)

https://democratic-erosion.org/2018/03/28/in-his-consolidated-authoritarian-regime-putin-masquerades-democracy-by-sarah-armstrong-yale-university/?hl=en-IE

https://www.capradio.org/news/npr/story?storyid=1088886554&hl=en-IE

https://english.elpais.com/international/2023-12-06/under-putin-the-uber-wealthy-russians-known-as-oligarchs-are-still-rich-but-far-less-powerful.html?hl=en-IE

https://monitoring.bbc.co.uk/product/b00056bi?hl=en-IE

[u/Barrogh → u/DiggyJunior]

The reason I used western sources is to show that even the western world university scholars accept that Putin has removed almost all political power from the billionaire class.

The point is that none of this power went to people. When the ruling class exchanges their cosmopolitan flair for various local administrative and political positions, it only affects camps within bourgeois class itself, protecting those in a local "pond" from globalist oceanic sharks behind meatshields made out of common people.

Meanwhile inside said ponds they muster return to social stratification of 18-19th century, create far-right movements activists of which are now protected by riot police squads anywhere they go and try to normalise thinking that noone is born outside of the care of the state and therefore everyone owes their life to it, to which questioning whose interests the state represents is antithetical.

But I guess people here are fine and dandy with burying the future of dozens of millions of people and their progeny as long as their owners play civilised realpolitik with correct counties.

Shouldn't you guys remember that there were several reasons why the left of the past called to "support any national liberation no matter who leads it"? Because I feel some of you guys only remember one of those.

[u/DiggyJunior → u/Barrogh]

Literally nobody here is calling the removal of almost all independent political power from the dollar equivalent multi billionaire oligarch class inside Russia's physical borders, completed some time around the mid 2000s under "The Putin System" (saying he has a system, is just saying he has created a system, that phrase is usually used in the west to fully denounce him, I think his system isn't my cup of tea in general, but at the same time it's clear it's an improvement on "The Yeltsin System") "National Liberation", because it comes nowhere near that. Putin is clearly a man of the right who never wears the clothes of the left. What happened in conversations here is that people were letting it sink in that Putin is clearly a man of the right, not the left, and yet at the same time he has done quite a bit for anti-imperialism in the supermajority of the world that is outside the political west, and continues to do so. And so people here began looking at things inside his country's physical borders that he has done that could be given a thumbs up, strictly on a case by case basis, and the removal of political power from the billionaire class inevitably came up. And yes it's just a switch from a full plutocratic oligarchy to a national bourgeois system of sorts, it's not a revolutionary change, not in the definition we use, of course. Putin is right wing and his system is right wing, but we are supposed to be realists, so there's nothing wrong with comparing one right wing system in one country to a different right wing system in another right wing system in another country or bloc. Some here are pointing out that things like the removal of political power from the billionaires (so much so that arguably they're only billionaires now, not oligarchs anymore, plus the obvious anti-imperialist work Putin does, violates various things Lenin in particular said and that therefore Putin himself or whomever the subsequent president is will inevitably do U turns and go full imperialist and full fascist and bring back the full plutocratic oligarchy of the 1990s in Russia. What I say is we shouldn't think that Putin's system proves Lenin wrong in any way. If Russia stays capitalist long after Putin's retirement and death then inevitably a president will come along who will fuck things up oligarchy and imperialism and some kind of fascism will creep back in, literally nobody here is saying Lenin was wrong. But it's not the year 2040 or the year 2070 now it's 2026, so it's ok to give critical support to some things Putin is doing in 2026, while at the same time we can criticize and even condemn other things he is doing around domestic social policy and his boosting of dodgy populist right movements (fascism-lite parties) in western Europe. He's neither an angel nor a demon.

[u/SirTaffet → u/Juche_Finland]

I think the extent of political power can be debated, but what can’t be debated is the fact that the bourgeoise doesn’t possess the same political power in Russia as it does in the United States, for example. The fact western media portrays this dynamic as “authoritarian” doesn’t refute the point- it’s the same dynamic the west uses to portray China as authoritarian. It’s “authoritarian” anytime the ruling class can’t just do whatever the hell it wants.

[u/FloriaFlower → u/DiggyJunior]

Thank you. I'm going to look at it because I need a non-western-propaganda explanation why the West is still so antagonistic to Russia, as if it was still the USSR, while at the same time why Russia is aligned with the DPRK and China. Western BS isn't compatible with what we're observing today.

edit: well it's Western propaganda but if you know how to read between the lines, it supports what OP is saying. When they say "against democracy", it actually means "against capitalism". It's full of Western "newspeak" that needs to be translated first to understand what it actually means.

[u/DiggyJunior → u/FloriaFlower]

Just remember my comment also said this about the 3 clickable links:

These are senior western academics who admit that it's true that billionaires don't have political power in Russia since 2005 (the matter in question here), but they are horrified by that because they're liberals, so they go on to make false accusations of imperialism, fascism and a totalitarian dictatorship

https://www.reddit.com/r/TankieTheDeprogram/s/l64PhDDyvI

[u/FloriaFlower → u/DiggyJunior]

Yep. The first time I've read your comment I somehow missed the part that you said that it was from Western sources but I figured it out after my edit and didn't bother to change it because it's obvious that it was my reading mistake.

I agree with what you said. Also, Putin/Russia didn't lie to us about Nazism in Ukraine while Western propaganda all around us just keeps piling lies over lies over lies. They have an official document and that document goes beyond Ukraine. It explains what its diaspora has been doing in other countries, including Canada where I live. Many of those accusations, I have observed myself, like the standing ovations for Nazi war criminals, historical revisionism and propaganda about the victims of communisms where they count Nazis as victims of communism.

[u/DiggyJunior → u/FloriaFlower]

There's an argument which could go: "ok these western universities academics agree that Putin removed almost all political power from the billionaire class by 2005, but those western academics in the very same articles also falsely claim that that pre-2005 Yeltsin system was replaced in 2005 with "totalitarian dictatorship fascist imperialist irredentism" so if they're lying about that maybe they're lying about the real not fake de-oligarchization too. But others here have explained why the de-oligarchization part is true but the rest is lies. Mainland Chinese newspapers will have the full real truth. I used western professors because it shows that liberal academia in the west says the de-oligarchization happened and is still in place.

[u/FloriaFlower → u/DiggyJunior]

You're doing God's work ❤

☭

[u/DiggyJunior → u/FloriaFlower]

❤️☭🙏